Small Rituals
by Xnasha Minstrel
Summary: Lisa finds that life after Sphinx has become interposed with small rituals.


**AN: Result of reading ZnT sadfic while listening to soundtrack on repeat. GOD I'M SO SORRY. **

"_Remember. Remember us. Remember that we lived.__"_

Lisa does, with all of her heart. She remembers, through the seasons and the countless summer days afterward.

* * *

Lisa finds that life after Sphinx has become interposed with small rituals.

She begins cooking curry at least once every month. She gets better with every batch, adjusting her ingredients as needed. Occasionally she will eat strawberry pocky afterwards, and the two tastes intermingle in her mouth with the sound of Twelve's laughter ghosting in the corners of her brain.

* * *

Lisa also takes up the habit of visiting their graves regularly. As time goes on, she finds herself busier and busier, trying to get into university and catching up on schoolwork, but she still manages to find time to sit for a while, taking in the scenery of the ferris wheel behind the branches of the trees.

Nine's music player is getting older, but she is careful with it. She would sit there until the sun went down, with music from a cold land in her ears. The sound of the soft vocals fills her with a calmness she associates with this place, this ritual. Through the music, she could vaguely hear the sound of laughing, and a ball hitting the ground.

On the day of her graduation, she sits there again, with Shibazaki at her side, and they both describe to them the world that still remembers. The detective gruffly tells the markers of the progress they have made bringing their country to rights.

"Slowly, but surely, we're getting there. One day, you'll get the justice you needed." The scruffy man says to them, voice determined. "I promised, and I keep my promises."

"I...and me, too." She says, hands clenching the hem of her dress. " I'm...I'm studying to become a writer. That way, I can tell everyone your story. All of it. And then...you'll be remembered. Like you wanted."

The wooden posts don't say anything, but she feels like she has their blessing.

* * *

And in the summer, on that day, she always goes to a pool.

Lisa doesn't jump in with all her clothes on, though. She always stands at the edge of the pool first, all awkward and self-conscious. Her swimsuit clings to her skin uncomfortably. The wind on her skin is dry and hot, and suddenly she is in high school, looking out at a familiar pool.

She draws a deep breath, backs up a few feet, and with a half-strangled shout plus a running start, takes a leap of faith.

In that moment, she feels like she is jumping out of a burning building again, but that's okay, because Twelve is there to catch her, his smile lighting up his face.

Lisa breaks through the surface of the water.

The sunlight shining through the blue is always the most beautiful on this day.

She holds on for as long as possible before she releases her breath in a rush of white bubbles. With a push off of the bottom of the pool, Lisa comes up for air with a gasp.

Somewhere, some time back, a boy with a smile like the sun had jumped into her life in this exact fashion, while a boy with eyes like eyes had watched.

Lisa brushes her hair out of her face, wet with the water that smelled of chlorine, and smiles as hard as she can.

Personally, she thinks Twelve would like this ritual the best. Nine would probably just scoff, but he would also be hiding the tiniest smile as he looked away.

* * *

When the first volume of the book is published, she starts a new ritual.

It continues, until she buries the last volume, "Von", with them.

_Hope is with them, even in the depths of winter_, Lisa thinks as she smooths the last of the dirt over the cover of crows in flight. _I hope that wherever they are now, they can read these._

She straightens, and brushes the dirt off her hands. The winter air is chilly, and the snowflakes drift down, covering everything in white. She pulls her coat tighter around herself and feels warm, despite the temperature.

She's keeping her promise.

* * *

"_Remember. Remember us. Remember that we lived.__"_

Lisa does, with all of her heart. She remembers, through the seasons and the countless summer days afterward.

She finds that life after Sphinx has become interposed with small rituals.

But really, she doesn't need them to remind herself.

She is fulfilling the promise to remember two extraordinary people every single moment of her life. She has no need for rituals, but she follows them anyway.

She thinks it is the best way to show the world (and herself) that she is living the best way she can.

Besides, Twelve probably would have liked it, and although Nine would try his best to seem distant, he probably would have liked it too.

* * *

**AN: So, present tense is not something I usually use, but I wanted that sense of immediacy in the story, for Lisa is living in the present for the people in her past.**

**Drop the starving author a review?**


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